My First "Real" Garden!!!

Hi All!

After relocating to Los Angeles from Chicago a few years ago, I have been trying to find space in a community garden so that I could truly have "my own" garden.

Well I have finally found space in two different gardens, neither of which are in my immediate area, and neither of which are in "nice" areas for that matter, but the people are all really lovely and welcomed me without all of the typical pretentious LA snobbery that I have come to expect. So this year I finally have my own gardening space. The areas around the gardens are kinda scary looking, but inside, the gardens are really nice.

One garden in run by a lovely group of ladies that have not been able to get many people interested in joing (because of the area), that is a completely organic garden. The other is run by a gentleman who has no other participants (definitely because of the area). But nonetheless, I happily joined both gardens. On the upside, I just found out from my county extension office that by joining the community gardens, they are both tax right-offs, as well as any of my expenses from the garden including plants, seeds, soil, etc. A bonus I didn't even expect.

So I am inviting everyone on DG to follow my journey as I give this gardening thing my full attention. Any information or suggestions you all have is more than welcome and truly appreciated.

Mr. Jones is running the garden by himself and without any funding, and since he works two jobs, he was unable to have the garden completely prepared for me to plant in by Saturday, so I offered to prepare the beds myself. That was hard work. Here's a picture of what I had to start with on Saturday, April 15, 2006. I have 4 spaces in this one garden. They are 6' x 10' each.

Here is the first plot after I was done.

I have planted: kentucky wonder pole beans (in the back corner), cucumbers, blue lake bush beans, cucumbers, yellow bell peppers, green bell peppers, shishito peppers, cayenne peppers, habanero peppers, swiss chard (red & green), celery, cilantro, bronze leaf lettuce, Brandywine, Early Girls & Kellogg's Breakfast tomatoes, and tomatillos.

kanita

WOOHOOOO!

You go, girl!!

Did you need to do a lot of amending, or is the difference in soil color (before & after) just a matter of turning the soil & watering?

And how cool is it that you can write off your gardening expenses! :-)

Hey Jill

I did do a lot of amending to the soil. I added: Peat Moss, organic compost and Kellogg N'Rich soil enriching compost. I also added some fish bone meal.

Boy was that hard work. Those weeds were killer! I dug down 8inches and still had to go lower to pull up the roots.

The bonus about being able to write things off is way cool.

kanita

This message was edited Apr 18, 2006 3:46 PM

Kanita, you've done really well and I can't wait to see how everything turns out. I hope you have enough room in that 6x10 for all of those plants to thrive.

How is your other (organic) garden set up? Have you been able to plant it yet? What's gonna be in that one?

Keep up the great gardening!

Flip

Thanks Ritch. I am going to my organic garden in about an hour to set it up. I am planning on growing:

Eggplant, acorn squash, zucchini, some tomatoes (paul robeson, azoychka, brandywine, opalka, prarie fire, black cherry), pepperoncini, piemento peppers, serrano peppers, purple jalapeno peppers, chocolate beauty bell peppers, a lot of hebs, celery, collard greens and cucumbers.

I will post pics when I get back.

By the way, even though my other garden isn't required to be organic, I am only growing organically there as well. I gave the 8lb bag of osmocote I had to someone else.

kanita

Kanita, good for you for not giving up your dream to garden! I look forward to following this thread.

If you can let the acorn squash vines sprawl outside your designated bed area, you can probably fit them in.... but you might rethink that one due to space considerations... I know you're cramming in as much as you can (I would too), but whenever possible, try to leave 18 inches between your peppers and 2 feet between your tomatoes... You can probably tuck herbs all around the edges... You might want to trellis your cukes to conserve space...

Oh, you're going to have such a fun summer!

BTW, my mother hen streak is about to show.... given the neighborhoods you mentioned, please pay attention and be sure to have your cell phone near at hand in case you need to holler for help... Pepper spray would not be a bad idea either.... I'm sure you know all that! :-)

I went to the Union Ave. Garden yesterday, which is the exclusively organic garden, and unfortunately, the plot that I requested and have been waiting for, still had not been cleaned out. Apparently another member planted a lot of things in there since it had been empty for a while. Boy was I disappointed. They offered me another spot, one that I really did not like because of it's location and the fact that it is smaller than all of the other spaces, and that one still has to be cleaned out as well.

So at this point, I am wondering if I should just stick to the one garden that I have already begun to plant in, since I can have as many spaces as I want in that one. Which I learned yesterday will save me in gas money since it is in the opposite direction of where I live and where the other garden is.

Critter - You had a good idea about the pepper spray. I had not thought of that, but I probably should. I try to make sure I wear pants that have a pocket to safely hold my cell phone, and the garden does have a deadbolt the the iron gate that I can lock from the inside. It's funny, I feel safe inside the garden, but walking to my car I am contantly watching my back. Ideally I had wanted to ride my bike to the garden, but I don't know if that is such a good idea.

kanita

good going Kanita! Where there's a will, there's a way!
Debbie

Well done!!

I can just taste the Romaine now....

best to you,
don

kanita- your garden looks like great. I bet even though you might not be in the best part of town, that once you get your garden going you will feel like you are in your own little paradise. I wish you the best with your new garden.

Kanita, it looks great, and you're wise to think about focusing on just one of the locations. That makes a lot of sense. It's not so hard to burn out when too many projects are spread around. Having one place will let you really focus.

I got my 2nd plot cleared and planted up. In this one I have:

Japanese eggplant, acorn squash, yellow wax pole beans, serrano peppers, shishito peppers, pepperoncini, serrano peppers, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers , chile de arbol, cilantro, chives, bronze leaf lettuce, celery, collard greens and japanese cucumbers.

Jill - I put the acorn squash in the back near the corner opening, so that I can let the vines grow around the outside of the plot, I was told that it was okay if vines grew outside of my area, especially since there is just the two of us working in there. He said last year watermelons were just sprawling all over the place thanks to the birds that frequently "plant" seeds in the garden. Boy, I would love to see watermelons growing all of the place.

I'm so excited. Ms Merae, you are absolutely right, when I am in the garden looking at all of the rose, lavender and rosemary bushes as well as the vegetabled already growing, I completely forget about the neighboorhood surroundings.

Kanita,
Your garden bed looks awesome. Pepper plants really are pretty. I like all of your selections, yum. Good luck and enjoy your time with your plants.

Merae

Cool! I just wanted to check with you about spacing, because I know I'm always tempted to plant out seedlings much closer together than is wise... they look so lost & lonely at first, spaced out so widely when they're still so small!

"Rose, lavender and rosemary bushes"..... mmmmm... If I close my eyes, I can just smell those wonderful scents in the warmth of the CA sun!

What fun to be creating your own little garden oasis!

I think it is wonderful that you found some places to "dig in the dirt". Do you feel like you have your own secret garden hide out in the middle of the "concrete jungle"? Good luck with your new adventure!

i just found this thread. maybe you can buy a tiller and some other stuff and write it off also. i think it would be a good idea for you to put all of thiese posts into a garden diary. i started one for my vegetables and its working out great. you can put pictures in in and add new items anytime. it acts like you are writing a journal about what you are doing.
good luck with the gardens. hope it brightens up the area.

Thanks Kmom and Herbie -

Kanita, you have reminded me of how thankful I am to have my very first yard. I went from a condo in OC with a tiny patio, to a big house with a huge yard up here in OR. Yeah, CA has better weather, but no space unless you are a zillionaire.

Maybe that's something for you to consider in the future. Anyway, your garden is cute. Your plants are doing much better than mine. Of course you've got the perfect weather. ;)

Good Luck Kanita:

Please post updates as your garden grows.

Be safe.

BB

LOL Kanita what is your idea of cold 65 degrees? I remember being in CA the Xmas of 59 it was 78 degrees at 10 PM very nice to come from ice and snow to that lol just kidding you a bit I also remember San Fran in the winter not being very warm. Good luck with your garden. Ernie

Thanks Ernie & BB. I know it probably sounds funny complaining about 60 degree weather, especially since I came here from Chicago, but I had this idea of LA being sunny and at least 80 every day of the year.

kanita

I do miss zone 9b in the San Joaquine (CA) Valley, but, as noted above, there's no way on earth I could get my hands on 4.77 ACRES out there. It may be all sand and jack rabbits and wind out here in West Nevada (oh, and may I add last frost date this year projected for end of MAY!), but it IS far superior to the concrete, sirens and traffic that I left behind (other than I won't be putting plants in the dirt for another whole MONTH). I am so blessed to be able to finally have some space - I am working on my first garden in 20 years. Every precious square inch that you green up is to spit in the eye of the forces that try to crush your soul and spirit. I'm glad you found some space to play in the dirt. (I spend a lot of time in SoCal for work, and tell you the truth, I didn't know there WAS dirt in LA. Glad to know there IS and that determined people like you are turning it green :-)

Thanks so much Kmom, and congratulations on your garden! Whoa...4.77 acres, I would have no idea what to do with all of that space...maybe start my own line of hot sauce with all of the peppers I would go crazy growing.

Although your last frost date is the end of May, with the way that this year is passing by so quickly, it will be here before you know it.

Well, back to the seeds, I am starting extra seedlings of things I have an excess of to give to my neighboors. Last year I gave away a bunch of pepper seedlings, and everyone had pepper plants on their balcony. Note to self...stop buying seeds!

There's a great children's (picture) book by Stewart called "The Gardener" about a girl who makes a garden in the middle of the city and gives everyone seedlings. When Kanita first posted this idea I thought of it.

The plants look great.

Very cool. You might find that as your garden blooms and grows other people become interested. Gardening seems to be contagious. All the best to you and I look forward to seeing what happens.

Well, I planted up plot 3. I will post pics tomorrow.

I don't know if I am being obsessive with the spacing, i have a measuring tape down for each row making sure that I am spacing the seedlings appropriately. I have been following the square foot garden book.

Anybody have an opionion on soaker hosing vs. a reg water hose? I saw soaker hoses for $5.99 and a friend said that they were better.

Any feed back would be great as I can run the water hose to my plots, and get a 4-way spliter to attach the soaker hoses to, and water that way, if that makes any sense.

kanita

My gosh kanita, if you keep going you're going to wind up with enough acreage to apply for a government subsidy (lol). Soaker hose comes in two flavors, the vinyl hose with all the pinholes and the black pourous hose made from recycled tires. I used to plant pole beans along the south wall of my house on a homemade trellis that was about 20 ft. long. The soffit between my 1st and 2nd floors blocked all rain so the area was constantly dry. I ran a length of the black pourous variety and it worked like a charm using quick disconnects on the soaker and my garden hose. I just hooked it up, turned on the water, and let it trickle out for 15 or 20 minutes saving all the time I would have had to stand there watering with a regular hose plus all the water goes right into the ground and there's no runoff. Going to pick my first lettuce from the EB's tomorrow, Red Sails & Black Seeded Simpson, the Romaine & Buttercrunch still have a ways to go. There's nothing like the first harvest from the garden, it even makes my back feel better!

Rich

I think you need to thinking about moving to Texas. I can't imagine not having a space for a garden. Our yard is 2 acres. Look on Realtor.com and check out the real estate in Paris.

LOL...Thanks Rich! I bought the black porous one made from recycled tires. I just realized the other day that there are so many other things that I could be doing while watering each space instead of standing there just holding the hose.

Here is a little tour of the garden and what I have added to it. I had some large pots in the backyard of a friends house and relocated them to their new home in the garden.

This is my 3rd space. It has:

rosemary, sage, oregano, marjoram, lemongrass, flat leaf parsley, red cabbage, pimiento peppers, cherry peppers, red potatoes, romano pole beans, black valentine bush beans, and sugar snap peas.

This is a dwarf rio red grapefruit tree I bought a couple of months ago, sitting amongst the lavender.

One of the many lavender bushes in the garden.

A wide view of the garden. It needs a lot of work.

But what potential. You can see that someone put a lot of love into it once.

Kanita:

It's like a nice canvas waiting for the right painter.

Is this the first time you've grown lemongrass? I had a nice stand last year but it didn't come back. I am going to try again this year.

BB

Kanita--love the pics of the community garden! I would love to see a community garden on the corner of every urban and suburban street. Then maybe people would connect and talk to each other more! Keep those pics coming!
Debbie

Thanks everyone!

Zeppy - I ordered that book, The Gardener from Amazon yesterday, I can't wait to get it. It sounds adorable, and I can pass it on to my god-daughter.

BB- I have had lemongrass for a while, but I have only grown it in containers in a sunny window, and so far I haven't had a problem. I was really nervous about putting one of my container grown lemongrass plants in the ground, but it seems to have adjusted just fine.

kanita